Tag: union

DWP Pay: Reject and Prepare to Fight on Pay, Staffing and Workloads.

The DWP pay offer was finally published to all DWP staff on the 14th October. PCS members, in particular the lowest paid grades and those on “legacy” terms will be extremely disappointed with the management’s offer.

Whilst the award is above inflation, and in November pay – a temporary relief to many just before Christmas, this small increase in take home pay will soon be eaten up by the never-ending rises in the cost of living and does not address the years of pay neglect.

So rightly, members and many union activists will want to know how their union leadership will respond.

The pay award was rightly rejected by the  DWP Group Executive Committee. But this is all well and good – but what is their plan for winning on pay for members across the DWP, including thousands stuck on the minimum wage and bottom of pay scales?

It’s not enough to say “no” and the  Left Unity leadership should now be urgently preparing the ground amongst the DWP membership, to build the support necessary to win a statutory ballot on pay, staffing and the other issues facing members. As the biggest group in the union this could also lay the basis for re-invigorating the so called “national campaign” which the same people are blocking at  national level.

There are few Civil Servants saying that they are paid enough. This “rise” does not come close to meeting PCS policy, passed in Motion A315 at May’s union conference. This set out key demands including for a 10% pay rise with £15 p/h minimum wage as a step towards pay restoration to undo the significant real term pay cuts we have suffered since 2010 and beyond (around 32% on average). It also does nothing to address the other demands in A315: our pension overpayments since 2019, the huge staffing crisis in DWP and  the disparity between pay across different Civil Service Departments.

Additionally, the Low Pay Commission expects the minimum wage to rise by 5.8% in April, meaning that in a few months our lowest grades could find themselves back on minimum wage for the third year in a row, with EOs (especially on legacy contracts) being increasingly closer to minimum wage.

This pay award will lead to worse terms and conditions. It is not fully funded: the Civil Service Spending Review budgeted for 2% pay rises from 2021 – 2026, so 3% of the pay rise will need to come from existing departmental budgets. In DWP, this means increased workloads and continued understaffing, less money for recruitment. We are still nowhere near the 120,000 staffing levels the union agreed to campaign for in 2022. And there is little sign of the Group leadership mounting the campaign necessary to tackle this issue. With workplaces up for renewal of leases in the next few years, office closures could also be on the horizon.

Since May, the newly elected NEC majority have been clear that we should utilise our industrial strength to maximise the pay award, with plans drawn up for a serious campaign around pay, pensions, staffing, flexible working, office closures, redundancy and national pay bargaining. The National President (who is also DWP Vice President) has undemocratically blocked every attempt to do this. This has been supported, without exception, by the DWP Group President, also  member of the NEC. The National President and General Secretary have blocked every attempt to put pressure on this and the last government including: –

• using our live mandates,

• putting our demands on the Labour Prime Minister and Secretaries of State before the announcement of the Treasury pay remit,

• rejection of the Treasury pay remit immediately as not good enough with clear reiteration of our demands including for 10% and £15 minimum wage.

This failure to push PCS policy means that negotiators at delegated level, including the DWP have entered talks with one hand tied behind their backs.

But, even in this scenario, the PCS DWP Group  negotiators must take some responsibility for the particular weaknesses in this offer. The bulletin they put out on the 14th October criticised the NEC majority for the position it has taken on pay. Surely their focus should be about exerting maximum pressure on the employer to improve what was on the table. Unfortunately, bad offers are what happens when a pay remit – 5% or not – is “welcomed” and key issues are not addressed. And especially one that is not fully funded, and can therefore never provide what our members need no matter how you spin it.

Broad Left Network supporters have consistently been arguing for a serious campaign across the union, including in DWP, yet the Group leadership have consistently tried to block any attempt to do so, supported by their counterparts at a national level.

What we need is a serious campaign and we should be demanding national pay bargaining to use the full strength of the union. But all attempts to discuss this gets undemocratic presidential rulings blocking us from launching the campaign required to win. Which is why we support the call for a special delegate conference to make clear that Martin Cavanagh and Fran Heathcote do not run our union – the elected NEC majority do.

Why We Need A Special Delegate Conference

After winning a 19:16 majority on the union’s National Executive Committee the left majority group (coalition for change) has faced repeated obstruction from the President and General Secretary- members of the defeated Left Unity group.

 At every meeting of the NEC the President (Martin Cavanagh) has ruled out discussion and decision on proposals/motions put forward by the NEC majority allowing only poor proposals from  the General Secretary to be heard.

These two members of the group defeated in the union elections, are now sabotaging the programme of the elected majority. They have: –

• blocked a challenge to the Starmer government 5% pay remit

• blocked action on conference motion A315 calling for a national campaign on pay, jobs, pensions and other issues

• blocked a review of the strike levy and an immediate reduction for low paid members

• blocked NEC discussion of a union staffing review by the General Secretary and her unilateral promotion of her two key allies to new senior management positions with pay increases to match.

We urge branches to call an Extraordinary General Meeting to agree a motion calling for a Special Delegate Conference- https://bln.org.uk/2024/10/13/rebuild-a-fighting-union-support-the-call-for-a-special-delegate-conference/

Broad Left Network Launch Statement

The Broad Left Network is a campaign for a fighting, democratic union. Our supporters include members of several political parties and independents. We are all Socialists and support PCS Left Unity.

The election campaign for the Assistant General Secretary of PCS raised issues that remain central to the future of our union. The majority of the Left Unity National Committee failed to actively campaign for the election of the candidate chosen by the Left Unity members. Some even campaigned for a candidate who was not in LU. This led to the loss of the election and a victory for a political opponent. We cannot rely on these LUNC members to respect the decision of Left Unity members in the General Secretary election if their preferred candidate is not successful.

We stand for:

INCREASED DEMOCRACY AND ACCOUNTABILITY: A RETURN TO LAY CONTROL

  • A campaign to restore lay democracy and control and to strengthen the democratic accountability of the union to its lay structures. A campaign to turn back the increased top down HQ control in favour of lay control. A campaign to extend accountability through periodic election of FTOs. Senior FTOs should be on wages more closely linked to our members.
  • A campaign to restore Left Unity as an open, democratic, fighting rank and file organisation – one which will hold the leadership to account; where differences on issues can be held and expressed; where members unify around and actively support agreed election candidates.

Bargaining / Campaigns

  • For a national campaign to defend jobs, pay, conditions and services. Co-ordinating action and campaigns on issues such as pensions, compensation scheme, jobs and office closures.
  • For organising and fighting for PCS recognition across all private companies delivering work that should be done by permanent Civil Servants, including HR and facilities management. To include a decent living wage, decent conditions and working environment. A campaign to bring back into public ownership privatised and contracted out work.
  • For a return to national bargaining across the Civil Service.
  • For effective FTO support for Groups and Employer bargaining units.

Equality

  • For an equality strategy that puts equality into practice, such as fighting for decent affordable childcare provision, parental leave and workplace nurseries, and flexible working.
  • For fair and equality proofed pay and personnel systems as a step towards removing barriers in the workplace and encourage participation at all levels of the union.
  • For an equality agenda that pro-actively fights for the rights of all our members including Women, Black, LGBTQ+ and Disabled members.
  • To ensure that the tone and attitude in discussion and debate across the union is conducted in a comradely manner and encourage everyone to have their say.

Political strategy

  • For an independent political voice for PCS.
  • For working collectively with politicians and campaigns who support the policies of PCS. For PCS to independently defend the interests of PCS members whoever is in Government.
  • For a Jeremy Corbyn led government that increases pay, stops the cuts and office closures, restores national bargaining, renationalises privatised services, introduces better rights at works, scraps and replaces Universal Credit with a fair social security system.

The Broad Left Network aims to build support for these ideas and to campaign for candidates who share these views. If you support these aims and want to get involved then please contact us at…

pcsblnetwork@gmail.com